green tea and food you want to eat after a ride.

[jawaka]

i've been out on my first long ride since autumn and i've noticed before that your body seems to tell you what you need to eat or drink for recovery; sometimes it's carbohydrate and sometimes it's protein such as today, when i really fancied a corned beef sandwich and sometimes it's a cappucino (i've got a gaggia machine at home marvellous). also i have found one type of green tea that i found reasonably pleasant (most i find disgusting) called yogi green jasmine tea; odd thing is that i really fancy some after a long ride but rarely want to drink it much otherwise. so your system seems to tell you what it wants and there must be someting in green tea to aid recovery.

[toontra]

For me it's a pork pie during a long ride. I wouldn't think of eating them any other time so this must be some kind of auto-response triggered craving. I understand they are full of salt so maybe it's the body wanting to conserve fluid.

[patricktaylor]

I once ran out of sugar at work, for my mid-day coffee, so I had it without sugar, and the next day, and the next... until I got used to coffee with no sugar at work at lunchtime. But at home at other times of day, I couldn't get used to the coffee without sugar.

Out cycling I always take Vimto, but I don't normally like Vimto - only when out cycling. It's been like this for years.

[eileithyia]

I too am a great believer in the body knowing what it wants (if we bother to listen), women who believe they are in labour and who can then sit down to a 3 course dinner are not usually in labour, meanwhile those that only want a small snack are usually in labour.
When I started with Andrew, I suddenly craved a glass of milk and a honey sandwich not items I would normally eat at any time of the day and certainly not at 03.30! Clearly it was the energy I required to get me through the rigours ahead.

The first time I got "bonk" it was just after arriving home from a cycle ride I did not know what was making me feel sickly but I knew I need toast and marmalade to rectify the situation.

[zenzinnia]

I spend ages in the kitchen knowing I want something but not knowing what it is!!!!

[thirdcrank]

I don't know anything about green tea.

As I'm always posting whenever anybody comes on here for advice about hunger knock or whatever people want to call it, keeping stoked up during a ride is very important. I'm not so sure about eating afterwards. It's very easy to get into the habit of eating when you get home from even quite a short ride and just pile on the weight.

You do have to be careful after a long ride. I once got home after an all day winter ride feeling very hungry. There was going to be a half hour wait for our Sunday Dinner (eaten at teatime in my long distance cycling days.) For some silly reason I guzzled a glass of wine without eating anything. There was a 'Pick of the Week' item on the radio about somebody who had had vasectomy without an anaesthetic.... The next minute I was on the floor and I really thought I was dying. I tapped feebly on the wall to attract attention and my wife just thought I was cloowning about. I did survive of course, feeling very silly

On the drinks without sugar thing, that's another memory lane tale.

In the mid 1970's, there was a sugar shortage, made worse by panic buying. There were more grocery shops then and retailers rationed sales (but for some reason often let pensioners buy what they wanted and any that have survived must still beusing their old stock of sugar) At that time I used to take three heaped spoons of sugar in a mug of tea or coffee. Most people you visited through work would offer a cup of tea but look down their nose over sugar. I multiplied my daily tea intake by three (= a couple of hundred spoonfuls a week)and realised I was downing a couple of bags of sugar a week so I decided to stop taking sugar in drinks. I cut it out immediately - no gradual withdrawal and I've never used it since, even in strong coffee.